


Episode 10: Beun's Crew Pt 2

by PitoyaPTx



Series: Clan Meso'a [10]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Hutta (Star Wars), Hutts (Star Wars), Interspecies Romance, Mandalorian, Twi'leks (Star Wars), slavery in Star Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 04:37:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17932964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitoyaPTx/pseuds/PitoyaPTx
Summary: "Be still my heart." ~TeikaSometimes you gotta dance 'till you're dead





	Episode 10: Beun's Crew Pt 2

Vonni caught Jecho against his chest; last time a dancer missed the cue to stop they were harshly punished. Lyse polished off her drink and gently set the terrified Devaronian down; Teika’s fangirls hushed. All around the room, patrons, dancers, and musicians alike grew silent as they turned to the deus where the Hutt family was lounging. Three Zabrak, a male and two females, sat on the floor in front of him, horns draped with so many jewels it was hard to tell there was a life form under it all. The center Zabrak, the male, stood and moved to the left of the Great Hutt. In rapid, slightly slurred Huttese Fa’athra gestured in welcome and began the first of many speeches over today’s festivities.   
“The Honorable Fa’athra welcomes you once again into his home,” the Zabrak translated in Basic, “He hopes you will enjoy his food, his drink, and the entertainment he has so graciously provided.”   
Lyse strained to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the statement, but she did momentarily catch the eye of a server with a similar twinkle in her eye.   
“I regret to inform you,” he continued, “that certain measures are being taken to protect myself, my family, and my assets.”   
A sinking feeling swept through the room as several armed guards, many bounty hunters of varying costume and creed, made themselves visible around the room. Vonni instinctively tensed up, tightening his grip on Jecho. She ignored him, however. Across the room, not far from the guest entrance, was a fiery red Twi’lek with bright golden eyes. She was dressed in a gold-and-white bikini with rubies dotting the low cut waistline of her floor length skirt. Before Fa’athra’s announcement, Jecho noticed her dancing near the deus with a few other similarly clad women. It was hard to miss her, though, as she was not only stunning in general but when she danced, her hips were mesmerizing. Jecho blushed at the women’s gaze, but it quickly turned from admiration to fear. Vonni’s stomach flipped as Jecho pushed closer. He looked down only to follow her gaze across the room, suddenly aware of the burning eyes of the red dancer.   
“The mighty Fa’athra was made aware that cases of munitions and priceless artifacts were stolen from his palace last night,” the Zabrak went on, scanning the room, “his guards report that the thief was a Twi’lek!”   
Hushed murmurs rippled through the crowd, many of the dancers looked panicked. Lyse crossed her arms, but Teika noticed a slight twitch when the news hit her. Jecho’s attention was elsewhere; Teika made to follow her gaze when Fa’athra’s interpreter spoke again:   
“The merciful Fa’athra will not spoil your fun with his investigation, but be warned,” Fa’athra inched forward on his lounger, “He will find the thief and an example will be made of them!”   
Stunned silence followed the declaration. The bounty hunters continued to scan the room before blending back into the shadows and throngs of people still piling in from outside. The band began a tentative return to their instruments; Vonni and Jecho slowly pulled apart as their handler motioned for them to “take it from the top”. Teika barely heard his captors going back to their animated gossip; the red Twi’lek was dancing again. Fa’athra’s nephew, Heerun, was drooling over her, his enormous eyes fixated on the carefully curated curves of her body.   
“Twi’lek,” an older woman across from Teika muttered, “Always using their bodies to gain favors.”   
“I heard,” chimed in her bubbly daughter, “She arrived last night in a secret shipment from the Outer Rim.”  
“Ooo,” her sister said, sliding closer, “Who told you that?”  
She shrugged, “I don’t know I heard it sometime last night, but look at her.”  
They all looked over Teika at the dancer, still captivating the Hutts.   
“A body like that doesn’t happen to anyone in the core,” the woman leaned in and whispered, “I hear the really slutty ones come from Tatooine.”   
“Figures,” her mother huffed distastefully, “A hotbed of crime always breeds cash cows.”   
Teika bit his tongue and decided to curb the conversation before he had to listen to more racist Core-worlders.   
“Hey ladies,” he said, laying on the charm as thickly as he could. He leaned back in the booth, letting the gold chains drape across his face and neck, “All this talk has me tired.”  
He yawned and stretched, leaning back against the chair as if exhausted. He cracked one of his eyes and gave them his best smolder.   
“Oh you poor thing!” they exclaimed, the women on his right and left began fanning and fussing over him once again, still careful not to touch him despite every inch of their body language telling him it was killing them.   
Lyse’s handler shooed the previous group of patrons away so she could take a much needed break.   
“Make it quick!” he barked, grabbing the pint from her hand and sliding it back to the bartender.   
Lyse trotted off back into the prep-room. Her attendants, engrossed in a steaming spread of food, rolled their eyes when they saw her.   
“You just did the lifting thingy, didn’t you,” one of the humans grimaced and held their nose, “Whomever you held had awful b.o.”   
“No, that’s just me,” Lyse sighed, “You gonna clean me up or what?”  
They sighed and set down their plates of food; Lyse was now an expert at not drooling every time she saw how Fa’athra rewarded them for putting lotion his real credit-makers. Keeping up her appearance meant she got more food than her counterparts, but she always shared what she had. Teika in particular needed the extra food. Because of his biology, it was easy for him to become emaciated and malnourished in the absence of plentiful food, meat in particular. Lyse’s diet was mostly meat, fruits, and supplements to keep her muscles at an acceptable wow-factor according to Fa’athra. She had no qualms about keeping one of her best friends from dying. Seeing him swarmed by women every night made her proud. She knew how hard this was for him, being taken from his home and humiliated by his enslavement. Hearing him laugh and boast about the credits he raked just by his “I’m so tired” routine was well worth sharing her meal. Jecho had a slower metabolism, meaning her standard portions didn’t affect her health much. Never stopped her from nibbling a bit of steak now and then.   
“Ugh my word, I hate it when you do that!” an attendant exclaimed, letting go of Lyse as she stretched, her spine making a hollow pop just between her shoulder blades.   
Lyse smirked, snatched an eopie slider from the table, and sauntered back out into the cantina. An enthusiastic applause nearly knocked her over when the doors parted. Taller than nearly everyone there, she easily peered over the crowd towards the deus where a brilliant red Twi’lek was dancing and twirling a white-silk ribbon. She was unbelievably agile, never missing a step even when the band upped the tempo. She’d swing one way, twirl another, her toes pointed and eyes shut as she captivated the entire cantina. The glittering rubies around her waist, the beads dancing across her forehead, the whole room was captivated. Lyse spotted Jecho and her dance partner being helped off their platform by their handlers, Teika was still in his booth but his patrons had eyes only for the Twi’lek.   
“Wonder how much he paid for ‘er,” someone whispered to Lyse’s right.   
She cringed. After eighteen years spent passed from one owner to the next, she still wasn’t used to being referred to like property. This dancer though, whomever she was, must have been worth a fortune. She was stunning and radiant; Lyse could make out a set of abs that rivaled her own and biceps that could probably lift as many patrons as she, and yet she was still feminine and delicate. Teika was now similarly entranced. He pushed aside the gold chains draped in front of his eye so he could see her better. After a few moments, he found himself blushing and letting the chains obscure his face once more. It took him a moment to become aware of the presence behind him.   
“Do you see her,” Jecho whispered, eyes glued to the radiant blur of red-and-white.  
With each hastening of the beat, each rotation in her hips, the crowd’s collective heartbeat reach heights that made many patrons too dizzy to keep watching...yet no one turned away.   
Fa’athra was speaking with his interpreter and a shadowy figure Teika could only identify by a shiny glint from a dark visor.   
“That’s a Mandalorian,” he shot over his shoulder.   
Jecho glanced up to the figure, not wanting to miss a single beat of the performance.   
“You’re right...do you think he’s here about the break-in?”  
“I would assume so,” Teika trailed off as the band, save for the drummer, ceased playing.   
With one final, dizzying solo, the dancer pulled out of her spin and threw her ribbon up into the air. She brought the backs of her hands together, slid them down to her head, lifted one foot to her knee, and held the pose, chin arched high in triumph as she reopened her sun-orange eyes. The room was electric. Glasses broke, patrons whooped, credits were thrown towards the deus, their clinking against the stone floor only adding to the deafening noise. Lyse felt herself gasping for air, had she been holding her breath this whole time? Teika and Jecho exchanged similar panicked looks. Vonni was the only one who seemed unaffected. He was smiling, but not at Fa’athra’s new favorite. He had eyes only for Jecho. Teika, who’d looked back to speak with her, caught Vonni’s gaze who quickly blushed and looked away. The Zabrak smiled sympathetically and gave him a wink.   
The band took the cheering as their cue to start another jazzy number, and the patrons were once again drinking and hollering about one thing or another.   
“As I was saying,” one of Teika’s companions regained her composure and sipped her cocktail, “Tatooine born.”   
“Mhm,” her sister rolled her eyes and sighed, “I want a body like that.”  
“You’d need to be an alien first!”  
She glared at her sister, scandalized, “Urii, not in front of Teika!”   
Urii blushed and batted her eyes, “Oh he knows I don’t mean that!”   
“I don’t know,” Teika sniffed, playing up a real pouty look, “Your words hurt me a little.”   
Another round of fawning, and a few snickers from Lyse, set the mood back to where it was previously.   
“After you,” Vonni held out his hand to Jecho and gestured back to their platform.   
“Oh my!” she curtsied and took his hand, giggling as he and their handlers lifted her up.   
Lyse finished her sandwich and headed back over to her handler, now slumped over the bar with a drink still clutched in his hand. She shook her head and the bartender chuckled, sliding her a glass of water.   
“Should I wake ‘im?” he asked, his thick mustache muddling his words.   
Lyse looked the Rhodian over, his prod still attached to his belt.   
“Yeah,” she decided, “He’d probably prod me if I touched him.”   
He chuckled again, “You know that dancer girl, the red one, looks like Fa’athra isn’t buying it.”  
“What do you mean?” she asked, looked back to the front of the room.   
Fa’athra was still speaking to his interpreter and the mystery Mandalorian. The red Twi’lek was kneeling before them, hands to her face and sobbing.   
“But what did she-” Lyse trailed off as the Mandalorian stepped into the light. His dark armor flecked with orange and grey was a harsh contrast to the muted browns and greens of the cantina. He grabbed the dancer by the arm and pulled her away. She struggled and screamed, but no one heard her over the music. Lyse followed them until they disappeared into a side chamber, the door slamming shut behind them.


End file.
